I don't know how I really feel about inching my way towards my late twenties, but for now I'm embracing it. As much as I joke about it, I'll never be that girl who is 29 for three years in a row. In fact, I will be the woman still celebrating birthdays well into my golden years.

So no, I'm not 25 anymore. No, I no longer get to be the token young, hot, twenty-five year old living in New York City. But I will totally be the young, hot twenty-six year old living in New York City. And I will be her with a vengeance.

January 26, 2011

To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of the snow. Today was particularly wretched.

It's not the snow itself, actually. It's the dirty slush, and the sideways sleet being flung from the sky and managing to sneak its way up under my umbrella, and the slippery sidewalks, and the snowbanks blocking the crosswalks.

Getting dressed in the morning is such a production when I have to take into consideration temperature, wind, precipitation, and the fact that the Columbia maintenance people can't get their act together, so some classrooms are seventy-five degrees while others are fifty.

I'm officially ready for spring and sundresses and flats.

But I'm home for the rest of the day and I don't have to think about going outside. Instead I'll spend the afternoon doing wee bits and putting away some laundry. Perfect for this terrible weather.

{one} how tall are you?

Just 5'2".

The best things come in small packages :)

{two} besides bills, what do you spend most of your money on?

My ivy league grad school tuition is sort of taking the cake for most extravagant purchase right.

But my NY Metro card isn't cheap either.

{three} what are your three favorite websites?

If we're being honest, Google Maps, Google Reader, and Facebook are the ones I spend the most amount of time on.

{four} what brand of tennis shoes do you prefer?

Puma for running,

Converse for walking.

{five} what food can you absolutely not stand to eat?

I don't like anything bubble gum flavored.

{six} How many pairs of jeans do you own?

Maybe six or seven, but I don't wear them all.

I actually don't wear jeans that often.

{seven} if you could have any job, what would it be?

Being a food critic would be pretty delicious.

{eight} have you ever ridden in an ambulance?

I don't think so.

{nine} how many pillows do you sleep with?

four.

{ten} on a scale of 1-5, how organized are you?

Some days 1, some days 5, most days around a 3.5

I love for things to be in their place, but I usually can't be bothered to put them there.

***

I was getting off the metro today on my way home when I saw a group of (cute!) guys in Roma gear getting on the train, and not only were they speaking Italian, but they were speaking Italian with a heavy Roman accent! Hearing them made me feel the strongest pang of longing for Italy and Rome and my summer house at the beach. Instead I'm stuck in slushy and frozen New York.

January 23, 2011

I don't know about you, but when the mercury dips below thirty degrees, there's very little I want to do beside hole myself up in the house with a toasty drink, a good book, and a spread of tasty snacks.

Usually I'm a savory girl. I do like cakes and desserts and the occasional cookie, but I like dinner far too much to leave room for dessert. And it's the same for snacks; I'll take a salty snack over a sweet one almost always.

But there's something to be said for the beauty and appeal of sweets.

When I was littl, my mother's nicknames for me were all french pastries. Instead of calling me sweetie or honey, she called me mon petit choux a la creme, mon petit baba au rhum, mon petit napoleon, mon petit millefeuille au chocolat. So sweets and pastries have been ingrained in my being for as long as I can remember.

And let's be honest, it's usually hard for me to turn down any food.

So on this cold, New York, Sunday afternoon -- while cozy at home, in pajamas, with a cup of tea -- I've put together a collection of some Sunday Sweets (literally) that look too good to pass up.

January 19, 2011

I know that yesterday I was all excited about starting school again, but to be honest, I'm just as excited to have a day off today, even after only two classes (one of which was so incredibly boring that ten minutes in I started fantasizing about creative ways of committing suicide to end the pain).

I think I might be feeling a hint of a cold coming on and it was nice to get a full night of sleep and have a lazy morning today to try to keep the cold at bay. It may have worked. I definitely feel better than I did yesterday.

(It helps that it's almost noon and I'm still in my pajamas with a cup of Earl Grey the size of my head in front of me)

And I need to rest up because the rest of the afternoon/evening might be a bit crazy, between going downtown to meet my friend Amanda (whom I haven't seen since I left Madrid!) and then going back uptown for a back-to-school happy hour with my SIPA peeps. After which I need to get another good night's sleep because tomorrow I have econ first thing in the morning, and in the evening a launch party for a new Peruvian fashion line my friend worked on.

But, before I rest up for a few more hours and then let my day get crazy, I need to answer some wee bits! As usual, don't forget to link up with Leigh!

{one} name one thing you worry about running out of.

I worry about my highlighters running out before I'm done reading because I hate switching colors in the middle of an article, so I always make sure I have an extra yellow highlighter with me.

I also hate running out of contact solution, but I don't really worry about that so much.

{two} what is your favorite pizza topping?

Bufala mozzarella, fresh cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil.

{three} what is your favorite harrison ford movie?

I think the Indiana Jones movies were pretty entertaining.

{four} apple juice or orange juice?

Fresh squeezed orange juice.

{five} what’s your favorite thing to do on a sunday afternoon?

My favorite thing to do is take a walk and explore a new part of the city,

but I'm usually at school studying.

{six} what is the wallpaper on your cellphone of?

Cherry blossoms.

{seven} do you have a favorite tv commercial?

There was this one commercial I loved in college (for a mortgage broker) but only because it had the catchiest jingle. And once there was a commercial just of babies laughing and it was hilarious.

{eight} what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

Suckling veal intestines

{nine} what is one piece of clothing you can’t live without?

Cardigans.

I have dozens. live in them.

{ten} if you were a character from “lost”, who would you be?

I saw exactly two episodes of Lost - one with polar bears on a tropical island, and one with a plane full of heroin that conveniently crashes onto an island with an addict - and I stopped watching.

I think I may be the only person on the planet that didn't like and never watched Lost.

January 18, 2011

Considering that my entire program is only two years (four semesters), the fact that I'm already twenty-five percent done, when if feels like i just started, is a little disconcerting.

The second years, who a mere five months ago had barely finished their first year, are now a mere five months from graduation (and they will be sorely missed).

But, premature nostalgia aside, I am very excited about round two of school, despite the fact that I'm inadvertently taking six classes this semester and I'm likely going to have very little time for myself. But I made my bed, I suppose I should lie in it, unmanageable course load and all.

As much as I've enjoyed the last month off--visiting my family, traveling and even the travel mishaps, meeting new people, visiting new cities--I was starting to crave a routine. Don't get me wrong, waking up at eleven in the morning (at the earliest) was great, but not having a regular schedule for an extended period of time really starts to do a number on you. I'm not twenty-one anymore (in fact twenty-one is uncomfortably close to being an entire half decade behind me); I can only go with the flow for so long.

So--despite the fact that on Tuesdays I'll have eight hours of classes (six consecutive, four in the same room), and that what time I don't spend in class will most likely be dedicated to extra curricular activities, and that whatever time I have left over will be spent reading, and that my very frequent morning cost/benefit analysis between showering and sleeping for twenty minutes longer will probably be more frequent, and that my out-of-school friendships will start to seem like distant memories--I welcome and embrace this new semester, because I am so lucky to be here, and I honestly couldn't be more thrilled.

January 9, 2011

I think that after the snowfall that ruined my vacation plans and the negative Minneapolis temperatures I've finally resigned myself to the fact that winter is here and I need to dress appropriately for it.

Not that I haven't been dressing appropriately until now, but I did pack flats (never worn) and a cotton dress (worn with a sweater, tights and leggings) to come home for winter break, which tells you a bit about what my hopes were for the weather.

Now that my hopes have officially been dashed, I've let myself wander over look at some cute wintery clothes and accessories (none of which I can indulge myself with - I already have way too much stuff!) and I've put together a few of my favorites.

January 7, 2011

I would talk about how thrilled that I am that it's Friday, but a) it doesn't mean much to me, since I'm still on vacation and my weekends are indistinguishable from my weekdays (don't hate), and b) I'm actually a bit bummed, because it's the last Friday I'll be at home before running off to DC for a conference and then heading back to school. And as long as this month off has seemed, it's also flown by far too quickly (as vacations often do), and I'm really going to miss all the down time I've had with my family.

But time will do what time does and there's nothing I can do to slow it down or stop it (something that has increasingly been on my mind since my twenty-sixth birthday is fast approaching...), so I'll just accept that another Friday is upon us and fill in some blanks!

1. Winter is long, cold, and miserable, but necessarily to make you properly appreciate spring. It will also never be as bad at the winters I spent in Montreal, so I really can't complain .

2. Summer is always an adventure, and never long enough.

3. If it were summer instead of winter right now I'd hopefully be in Argentina working on social justice, except it would be winter there, so this might turn into a circular argument...

4. My favorite thing to do in winter is curl up by the fire in a warm sweater, with a good book and a glass of wine, listening to some soothing jazz.

5. My favorite thing to do in summer is relax in a garden in a cute summer dress, with a glass of wine, making leisurely conversation with good friends .

6. The ideal outfit for a sunny summer day is a light and airy sundress, giant sunglasses, flats or sandals, and a train ticket to someplace wonderful.

7. The ideal outfit for a frigid winter day is tall boots, thick socks, warm tights, a cute dress, a cardigan, a scarf, and a fun plan to occupy the twelve hours of darkness .

***

In reality I've been lounging around the house in yoga pants for most of the week, but I suppose I have been making an effort when I go outside. It helps that I got a great pair of boots for Christmas :)

January 6, 2011

Last week my mother, my brother, and I went to LA to visit some family friends whom we hadn't collectively seen in long time. I saw Pati (the mom) and India (the daughter) in August, but before that I hadn't seen either them or Danny (the dad) and Asa and Noah (the twin boys) in about fifteen years--since India was a tiny baby and I was walking her around their garden trying to teach her her first word (leaf). I was ten at the time, Lucas (my brother) was seven, the twins were three, and that's the most recent memory most of us have of each other.

Now I'm just shy of twenty-six, Lucas is twenty-three, India is sixteen and the twins are nineteen and as (almost) adults we all had a little reunion at their house outside of LA (with our parents too, of course).

I was supposed to go out for five days but because of the snow storm I ended up seeing them for barely a day and a half (my mother and brother stayed longer). But still, it was plenty of time to catch up with the whole family and get to wander around their amazing property, on which they have an art studio, a guest house, and a barn, complete with dwarf goats, dwarf ponies, alpacas, geese, chickens, cats, dogs, and tropical birds. I could explain the craziness, chaos, and pure fun that is their day to day life with all these animals, but I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Yours Truly

About Me

I love telling stories and I hope I never run out of stories to tell.
I suffer from self-diagnosed geographic claustrophobia (in layman's terms, wanderlust), and I may be addicted to pens and moleskines; I'm looking into it. I love lonely, rainy afternoons with a great book and a cup of Earl Grey, sleeping in, and cooking up a feast in spacious, well-equipped kitchens. I hate purple, Uggs, and people who walk really slowly in front of me on the sidewalk. I can be opinionated and very stubborn, but I'm generally quite flexible. Especially if you ask nicely. I also like lemons a lot, and most things vintage. When I find a typo in a book it makes me a bit giddy. I think boredom is for boring people. I like non sequiturs. And brunch.
When I lived in Rome I had a Vespa. I miss it terribly.
My philosophies are live and let live, and to each his own; my religion is joie de vivre.
In the words of a wise man by the name of Wilde, life is too important to be taken seriously.